All the Countries We've Ever Invaded (and the few we've never got round to) by Stuart Laycock #bookreview

Book review: This book could have been called, "A short history of British invasion", but not in chronological order, not in geographical order, but alphabetically by country, including the countries we didn't invade. This approach means that there are repeated parts (where wars have crossed boundaries) and that no sooner are you getting into the flow of something than you're moved onto something else. The intro does make this clear, though. "This [book] isn't supposed to be an account of our invasions, rather it's intended to whet the readers' appetites to go in search of more information." This is also repeated throughout the book so the author recognises this failing. Perhaps a "suggested further reading" section should have been added to aid this?

Also, the book could have been made better with maps for each country alongside their text detailing the main places discussed, as not everyone's world knowledge is extensive. But there are world maps at the back at least, although not all countries are labeled on here, and some that are labeled are labeled wrongly, e.g. Malta is not Sicily, Zaire is the old name of DR Congo. These maps also would work better if they were interactive but this is a book.

The book does make you realise that the history Great Britain has is not normal and is perhaps something that we take for granted. "We've invaded, had some control over or fought conflicts in the territory of something like 171 out of 193 UN members... Sometimes, because we're used to it, we forget quite how unique out story is."

It has humour in it to help make the facts more digestible, which I appreciated, e.g. the Great Game - "They called it a game, but it was the kind of game where people ended up dead in large numbers rather than just, for instance, being given a stern word by the referee or getting sent off." But some of the humour is repeated with lots of references to amusing ship names used and how wars end up with multiple names.

Still, I am a bit of a history novice so perhaps I need more detailed books than this to get into the subject compared to others, and I read this cover-to-cover when it is probably best dipped into or done by areas (e.g. Africa), and indeed it does lend itself pretty well to that approach with its format. But overall it is ok for what it is doing and has given me an intro to the history of Britain's marauding past.

Available to buy on AMAZON UK here

My Friends (Our Special World) by Liz Lennon #bookreview

Book review: My 6-year-old daughter has read this to me. She is an early reader who this book is aimed at and she was able to read this well. As we were going along there were questions on most pages giving her the chance to talk about her friends. This is a good way of touching on subjects with her, in an unobtrusive way, that you otherwise might not do.

The blurb on the back says these books are "non-fiction books for young children which helps them find out about diversity in the world around them, The books feature questions to promote speaking and listening skills and are perfect for early years learning."

There is a contents page at the beginning so she started off with a section about painting pictures together. I liked that there was a section called "Falling out" about how friends might fall out with each other, a good lesson for the young ones. Apparently, my daughter's best friend will walk away when she gets annoyed with her.

Each page also has big, colour photographs of children playing. This is where the diversity aspect of the blurb comes in as the text doesn't really pick up on it but there are images of children in wheelchairs and from different ethnicities.

Overall then it hit the mark.

Available to buy on AMAZON HERE.

Teletubbies: The Tubby Custard Ride #bookreview

Book review: I got this for my 2-year-old (plus 7-months) boy to enjoy. He saw me take it out of the package and said straight away, “Please can I have it?” He then took to it immediately saying, “Daddy look, Noo-Noo”, “Daddy look, Teletubbies” and “Daddy, what’s this, what’s this, daddy, what’s this?” as he flicked through the pages.

The cover contains a slide section and needless to say it is these bits in the book that he finds most interesting, the slide bits and the picture wheels.

It is a hard board book so he can easily turn the pages on his own (although he won’t always wait for you to read the text first before doing so). It is reasonably durable too, although he has managed to rip it a little when he thought there was a page inside a page (the problem of having a slide section in between making the pages thicker tricking him into thinking there is a page in-between).

Each page is bright, glossy and colourful and features the Teletubbies on them. The story he won’t let me read because he wants to turn the page, or play with the feature, but with Teletubbies the story doesn’t matter too much.

But the book is certainly keeping him happy at the moment as he sits with it in his hand watching TV, occasionally turning to it instead.

It's available on Amazon to buy HERE.

Claude Going for Gold by Alex T. Smith #bookreview

Book review: First impressions of this book are really good. The cover has shiny gold on it, which goes well with the theme of the book and the title. It's a really well-designed cover and very visually appealing. The art style (apart from the glitzy gold) follows through the rest of the book too with the limited colour palette of red, grey, black and white (so no gold) being used. Claude is also set to have his own TV show on Disney Junior meaning his profile will get even bigger.

This story is of Claude and his friend Sir Bobblysock who go on an adventure together when Claude's owners, Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes, go out to work. So far so similar to the other Claude books. This time though the theme is sports as they take part in the STONKING BIG SPORTS DAY with the "most enormous glitzy gold cup you have ever seen". It's a really fast-paced storyline.

The humour comes through the characters names. For example, Mr Lovelybuns the baker, who has the best buns in town, and Ivanna Hurlit-Farr, the female shot putter, are characters. The humour also comes from Sir Bobblysock doing things you wouldn't expect a sock to be able to do.

One of the quotes at the end of the book from Primary Times says "Perfect for newly developing readers and great to share" and I agree with that.

Buy from Amazon UK HERE.

Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Great Big Story Nickers by John Dougherty and David Tazzyman #bookreview

This is the fifth Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face book ("soon we won't be able to fit all these on the back cover" it says next to the bit where it showcases the previous books) and it is just as silly and funny as the others that I've read. My 10-year-old daughter and I really enjoyed it.

The book starts with the character introductions, characters that have featured in the previous books such as Malcolm the Cat and the shopping trolley. This helps get the reader into the story straight away with no knowledge of the other books being required to read this one. The only difference this time with the character profiles is that they have been graffitied by those "evilest and wickedest" badgers, for reasons that become clear as you read the story.

The story begins similarly to other stories, chapter one "in which some waking up happens" featuring a bird of course, and the badgers safely locked up in jail. Things change when the badgers get a book titled "Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Great Big Story Nickers" with a sticker on it saying "DANGER! Do not open this book unless you have the training of a ninja librarian, or great calamity may befall." Of course, the badgers pay no heed to this warning and great calamity does befall Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face as the badgers write bits of the story and stick in pages from other stories too. 

This results in lots of characters from lots of different stories colliding and, of course, this leads to chaos (accompanied by "comedy saxophone music"). 

My daughter liked the way these stories were incorporated, famous stories such as Treasure Island and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as well as made up ones. She also liked the character Alfred Kendon-Furtado who won a competition to be in the book but seemingly had nothing to do except put up his hand after he'd been ignored for a while to remind people that he won a competition to be in the story.

Luckily Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face rescue the day of course, in yet another adventure full of action, fun and surreal-ness.

Available on Amazon UK: Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Great Big Story Nickers